1During the fourth year that Darius was king, a message from the LORD came to me. It was the fourth day of the ninth month. That’s the month of Kislev.2The people of Bethel wanted to ask the LORD for his blessing. So they sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek and their men.3They went to the prophets and priests at the LORD’s temple. They asked them, ‘Should we mourn and go without eating in the fifth month? That’s what we’ve done for many years.’4Then the message came to me from the LORD who rules over all. He said,5‘Ask the priests and all the people in the land a question for me. Say to them, “You mourned and fasted in the fifth and seventh months. You did it for the past 70 years. But did you really do it for me?6And when you were eating and drinking, weren’t you just enjoying good food for yourselves?7Didn’t I tell you the same thing through the earlier prophets? That was when Jerusalem and the towns around it were at rest and enjoyed success. People lived in the Negev Desert and the western hills at that time.” ’8Another message from the LORD came to me.9Here is what the LORD who rules over all said to his people. ‘Treat everyone with justice. Show mercy and tender concern to one another.10Do not take advantage of widows. Do not mistreat children whose fathers have died. Do not be mean to outsiders or poor people. Do not make evil plans against one another.’11But they refused to pay attention to the LORD. They were stubborn. They turned their backs and covered their ears.12They made their hearts as hard as the hardest stone. They wouldn’t listen to the law. They wouldn’t pay attention to the LORD’s messages. So the LORD who rules over all was very angry. After all, his Spirit had spoken to his people through the earlier prophets.13‘When I called, they did not listen,’ says the LORD. ‘So when they called, I would not listen.14I used a violent storm to scatter them among all the nations. They were strangers there. The land they left behind became dry and empty. No one could even travel through it. This is how they turned the pleasant land into a dry and empty desert.’
Zechariah 7
English Standard Version
A Call for Justice and Mercy
1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. (Ne 1:1; Zec 1:1; Zec 1:7)2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord, (1Sa 13:12; Zec 8:21; Mal 1:9)3saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” (2Ki 25:8; Ezr 5:1; Ezr 6:14; Zec 8:9; Zec 8:19; Zec 12:12; Mal 2:7)4Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me:5“Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? (2Ki 25:25; Isa 58:4; Zec 1:12; Zec 7:3)6And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? (1Co 11:20)7Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’” (Jer 17:26; Zec 1:5; Zec 7:12)8And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,9“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, (Isa 1:17; Jer 21:12; Mic 6:8; Mt 23:23)10do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” (Ex 22:21; Pr 22:22; Isa 1:23; Jer 5:28; Zec 8:17)11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.[1] (Ne 9:29; Zec 1:4)12They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. (2Ch 36:16; Ne 9:30; Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26; Zec 7:7; 1Th 2:16)13“As I[2] called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the Lord of hosts, (Pr 1:24; Isa 1:15; Jer 11:11)14“and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” (De 28:33; Jer 7:34; Eze 12:19; Zep 3:6; Zec 2:6; Zec 9:8)